Aliança de defesa franco-britânica - Adrien Abecassis, Jolyon Howorth

Breaking the Ice: How France and the UK Could Reshape a Credible European Defense and Renew the Transatlantic Partnership

A Royal Air Force Typhoon of 1(F) Squadron (top) and a French Air Force Mirage 2000N practice their formation flying skills during Exercise Capable Eagle, October 2013. (RAF Photo / Sgt Ralph Merry ABIPP RAF (OGL v3.0))

Cooperation between France and the UK has always been central to any European defense arrangements, despite decades of rivalry and misunderstanding. Notwithstanding Brexit, geo-strategic realities suggest that the two countries may increasingly find themselves developing similar responses to emerging security challenges. In a new research paper by the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship (PETR), fellows Adrien Abecassis and Jolyon Howorthargue that with compounding challenges, including the emergence of COVID-19 as a security threat, the current problematic trajectory of transatlantic relations in the Trump and post-Trump era, the discussion around “strategic autonomy,” and the recent abandonment of attempts by the EU to engineer inclusiveness and unanimity in its collective defense policy, a new frame for French and British strategic thinking could converge. The paper argues that the UK will find it increasingly difficult to avoid prioritizing Europe as the focus of its defense policy, while France, increasingly positioning itself as a “balancing power” in an emerging multi-polar world, is in effect embracing a strategy very similar to that traditionally played by the UK with respect to Europe. The authors do not claim that Franco-British strategic convergence will take place, but they outline the circumstances under which it could take place. In particular, such convergence, in order to be both effective and realistic, can only occur within NATO through its progressive Europeanisation, profoundly recasting the Alliance. Therefore, the possibility of joint Franco-British efforts to reshape a credible European defense both depends on the evolution of the transatlantic relationship, and will have a profound impact on it. Washington will have a key role in this process.

Read the Full Paper »

About the Authors  Adrien Abecassis is a Fellow with the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship (PETR) at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He is a career diplomat, and recently served as Deputy-Advisor for European Affairs to the President of France then Senior Political Advisor providing briefs to the President and coordinating efforts on policy planning. Adrien was also a lecturer at the Paris Institute of Political Sciences and has published in several news outlets. Jolyon Howorth is also a PETR Fellow at the Belfer Center. He is Professor Emeritus and the Jean Monnet Professor ad personam of European Politics at the University of Bath (UK). He was Visiting Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at Yale (2002 to 2018). He has published extensively in the field of European security and defense policy and transatlantic relations. Recent books include: Security and Defence Policy in the European Union, (2007, 2014, –3rd edition forthcoming); Defending Europe: the EU, NATO and the Quest for European Autonomy, (2003); European Integration and Defence: The Ultimate Challenge? (2000); The European Union and National Defence Policy (1997).

Read the Full Paper »